DNA tests vindicate US man convicted of rape

Cleveland: An Ohio man who spent nearly 30
years in prison is being released after new DNA tests showed
he didn`t rape an 11-year-old girl.

Raymond Towler had been serving a life sentence for the
rape of agirl in a Cleveland park in 1981. Cuyahoga County
Common Pleas Judge Eileen Gallagher choked back tears as she
vacated the conviction today and left the bench to shake
Towler`s hand at the defense table.

Prosecutors had asked the court to act immediately after
receiving the test results Monday.

The Ohio Innocence Project, an organization that uses DNA
evidence to clear people wrongfully convicted of crimes, says
Towler has served the second-longest amount of time among
prisoners in the US who were eventually exonerated by DNA.